Archive for April, 2011

The life that a book takes on after its publication can largely be a mystery. However much we can learn about the writing of a book and its publication, once it goes out into the world it is almost impossible to know everyone who bought the book and exactly what their experiences with it were among thousands and thousands of readers. The Kybalion is no exception. In the century since its first publication it has been cherished by its readers, but mostly unknown to the public at large, existing as an influential but underground classic.

One of the best windows we can have on to the reception and reaction to The Kybalion (especially in the time before online message boards and Amazon.com reviews) is through people whose mentions of The Kybalion and references to its Seven Hermetic Principles have found their way to print. For the most part, this group consists of people who were notable in their own right. We know that the French poet, actor and creator of the term “Theater of Cruelty,” Antonin Artaud, read The Kybalion. Norman Vincent Peale, the author of The Power Positive Thinking, was aware of the teachings of The Kybalion, if not directly than certainly through the writings of Florence Scovel Shinn. During the Reagan administration a Harvard PhD named Eileen Gardner was fired from her post at the Department of Education after only three days when her unorthodox views, partially inspired by The Kybalion, came to light in an uproar of public outrage. (It seems that most people were not comfortable with her view that handicapped children “summon” their problems to themselves…) And with a reference in his latest novel, it is clear that the best-selling contemporary author Dan Brown also knows of The Kybalion.

The book was also significant to at least two famous television actors. In a 2006 segment for the trade paper Daily Variety, Roseanne Barr listed The Kybalion as one of five books “that mean(t) a lot to ” her. More than just having a lot of meaning, The Kybalion was described in a 1982 profile for TV Guide as a life-altering book for Sherman Hemsley, better known for playing the character of George Jefferson on the sitcom The Jeffersons. Hemsley grew up in the Pentecostal church, but according to his own account left at the age of 9, eventual finding his way into a serious practice of meditation and mysticism. He was coy about what the catalyst for this transformation was, referring only to “the man with the book,” a kindly stranger he met that gave him a powerful text. Unlike Sherman Hemsley, his business partner Andre Pavon was more direct when he described Hemsley passing that same book on to him. “He gave me that (book) and others. ‘The Kybalion.’ It changed my life. He told me, ‘You got to read it, man.'”

Sherman Hemsley’s relationship with The Kybalion was a common one. In researching The Kybalion, I’ve repeatedly come across stories of people discovering the book after a passionate recommendation from a bookseller, mentor or friend. The important role it has had on one reader gets passed on as they recommend it to others as a book that has changed the way they think and see the world. While the claims in The Kybalion that it was part of an ancient, guarded tradition that was passed down “from mouth to ear” are dubious, it certainly has been part of another tradition closer to our own time and experience. In the past century The Kybalion has lived as a beloved and well-worn book passed from the hand of one friend to another and earnestly recommended from the mouth of one seeker to another in living rooms, bookstores and coffee shops, thousands and thousands of times.

It would be unusual for any other book to be used as a sales tool, “Key to Self-Mastery” and teaching tool for church services, but for The Kybalion these barely scratch the surfaces of all the different ways it has been used as an instructional text. The Seven Hermetic Laws of The Kybalion have been used in courses by Rosicrucians, amateur scientists, Freemasons, Pagans & Wiccans, pyramid-builders, essential oil therapists and countless smaller occult groups. Below are some advertisements for courses based on The Kybalion I have come across over the last few years of research.

The Kybalion has not only influenced occult and metaphysical groups in the 103 years since its publication. It has also been a force for many in the arts, appearing in novels, paintings, and music. In the 1980s Babette Koblenz set the words of the Seven Hermetic Laws of The Kybalion into a sacred a cappella musical form known as a madrigal spirituale.

Other musicians have given a nod to The Kybalion, and in the case of the Argentinian heavy metal band band Punisher, that nod was in the form of repeated headbanging. After several cassette demos, Punisher released an album in 1998 titled “Kybalion” with a cover that featured a headless horseman on a volcano in the midst of a lightning strike. Sadly, the “Kybalion” album appeared to be Punisher’s swan song. According to one website, they broke up not long after the album’s release when some of the members became Christians.

Listen to the third song (“TNT Power”) from Punisher’s “Kybalion” album here.

About

In late-April of 2011 Tarcher/Penguin will be releasing the definitive edition of the classic metaphysical text The Kybalion. The introduction to this edition will mark the first time that many of the questions surrounding The Kybalion and its history will be answered, including proof of the identity of its author, William Walker Atkinson. To coincide with its release, I have started this blog to provide a space for news and updates on this new edition as well as tidbits and images related to The Kybalion that did not make it into the introduction that I wrote for it.